diff --git a/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng b/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
index b1d883fcbbbe915063db4cf11d38efde3d73c400..e98e9052aa919430bcc710382a904cdefbea724c 100644
--- a/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
+++ b/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
@@ -582,14 +582,16 @@
     -->
   <define name="resources">
     <interleave>
-      <element name="memory">
-        <ref name='scaledInteger'/>
-        <optional>
-          <attribute name="dumpCore">
-            <ref name="virOnOff"/>
-          </attribute>
-        </optional>
-      </element>
+      <optional>
+        <element name="memory">
+          <ref name='scaledInteger'/>
+          <optional>
+            <attribute name="dumpCore">
+              <ref name="virOnOff"/>
+            </attribute>
+          </optional>
+        </element>
+      </optional>
       <optional>
         <element name="currentMemory">
           <ref name='scaledInteger'/>
diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.c b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
index 4ecb58c90fb1cc639cdb9042c8a2d3560bcace11..ca02bb9493b0d2bf80f6dd22a5dfebe1316c0a0c 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
@@ -3208,6 +3208,13 @@ virDomainDefPostParseInternal(virDomainDefPtr def,
         return -1;
     }
 
+    if (virDomainDefGetMemoryInitial(def) == 0) {
+        virReportError(VIR_ERR_XML_ERROR, "%s",
+                       _("Memory size must be specified via <memory> or in the "
+                         "<numa> configuration"));
+        return -1;
+    }
+
     if (def->mem.cur_balloon > virDomainDefGetMemoryActual(def)) {
         /* Older libvirt could get into this situation due to
          * rounding; if the discrepancy is less than 4MiB, we silently
@@ -13245,7 +13252,7 @@ virDomainDefParseXML(xmlDocPtr xml,
 
     /* Extract domain memory */
     if (virDomainParseMemory("./memory[1]", NULL, ctxt,
-                             &def->mem.max_balloon, true, true) < 0)
+                             &def->mem.max_balloon, false, true) < 0)
         goto error;
 
     if (virDomainParseMemory("./currentMemory[1]", NULL, ctxt,
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.args
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ca34f734fe9df48a215c514476323ae0463ea14a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.args
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+LC_ALL=C PATH=/bin HOME=/home/test USER=test LOGNAME=test QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none \
+/usr/bin/qemu -S -M pc \
+-m 214 -smp 16,sockets=2,cores=4,threads=2 \
+-numa node,nodeid=0,cpus=0-7,mem=107 \
+-numa node,nodeid=1,cpus=8-15,mem=107 -nographic -monitor \
+unix:/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait -no-acpi -boot n -usb -net none -serial none \
+-parallel none
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..fbdc5e60cf83e51d5b2f2954ba6e11eff17beb85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+<domain type='qemu'>
+  <name>QEMUGuest1</name>
+  <uuid>c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809</uuid>
+  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>219100</currentMemory>
+  <vcpu placement='static'>16</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
+    <boot dev='network'/>
+  </os>
+  <cpu>
+    <topology sockets='2' cores='4' threads='2'/>
+    <numa>
+      <cell id='1' cpus='8-15' memory='109550' unit='KiB'/>
+      <cell id='0' cpus='0-7' memory='109550' unit='KiB'/>
+    </numa>
+  </cpu>
+  <clock offset='utc'/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+      <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-minimal-no-memory.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-minimal-no-memory.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..68246512abe848852c5b725858d27165295e8647
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-minimal-no-memory.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+<domain type='qemu'>
+  <name>QEMUGuest1</name>
+  <uuid>c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809</uuid>
+  <vcpu placement='static' cpuset='1-4,8-20,525'>1</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='i686' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
+    <boot dev='hd'/>
+  </os>
+  <clock offset='utc'/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
+    <disk type='block' device='disk'>
+      <source dev='/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1'/>
+      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
+      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
+    </disk>
+    <controller type='usb' index='0'/>
+    <controller type='ide' index='0'/>
+    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
+    <memballoon model='virtio'/>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 5e7dd63f27874c006c2b968dc54a93920ef59c4b..fcf52187305432acfdb1ca6cb2ab3c3d5e71a646 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -594,6 +594,7 @@ mymain(void)
     unsetenv("SDL_AUDIODRIVER");
 
     DO_TEST("minimal", QEMU_CAPS_NAME);
+    DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("minimal-no-memory", NONE);
     DO_TEST("minimal-msg-timestamp", QEMU_CAPS_NAME, QEMU_CAPS_MSG_TIMESTAMP);
     DO_TEST("minimal-s390", QEMU_CAPS_NAME);
     DO_TEST("machine-aliases1", NONE);
@@ -1235,6 +1236,7 @@ mymain(void)
     DO_TEST("cpu-strict1", QEMU_CAPS_KVM);
     DO_TEST("cpu-numa1", NONE);
     DO_TEST("cpu-numa2", QEMU_CAPS_SMP_TOPOLOGY);
+    DO_TEST("cpu-numa-no-memory-element", QEMU_CAPS_SMP_TOPOLOGY);
     DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("cpu-numa3", NONE);
     DO_TEST_FAILURE("cpu-numa-disjoint", NONE);
     DO_TEST("cpu-numa-disjoint", QEMU_CAPS_NUMA);
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2xmloutdata/qemuxml2xmlout-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.xml b/tests/qemuxml2xmloutdata/qemuxml2xmlout-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..58f40b99023fd15ffd588e84ad5770b011d8196d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2xmloutdata/qemuxml2xmlout-cpu-numa-no-memory-element.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+<domain type='qemu'>
+  <name>QEMUGuest1</name>
+  <uuid>c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809</uuid>
+  <memory unit='KiB'>219100</memory>
+  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>219100</currentMemory>
+  <vcpu placement='static'>16</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
+    <boot dev='network'/>
+  </os>
+  <cpu>
+    <topology sockets='2' cores='4' threads='2'/>
+    <numa>
+      <cell id='0' cpus='0-7' memory='109550' unit='KiB'/>
+      <cell id='1' cpus='8-15' memory='109550' unit='KiB'/>
+    </numa>
+  </cpu>
+  <clock offset='utc'/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
+    <controller type='usb' index='0'/>
+    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
+    <memballoon model='virtio'/>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
index 8e12e84fcc28c4bab1a370c92d2b8e2874467bd5..6ffe36b700e50f41f41b40aa5932f6367b6d6a25 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
@@ -409,6 +409,7 @@ mymain(void)
 
     DO_TEST_DIFFERENT("cpu-numa1");
     DO_TEST_DIFFERENT("cpu-numa2");
+    DO_TEST_DIFFERENT("cpu-numa-no-memory-element");
     DO_TEST("cpu-numa-disjoint");
     DO_TEST("cpu-numa-memshared");